Pages

Monday, June 04, 2012

Fun times with the Book of Common Prayer

While I am not anything, I most certainly am not Anglican. Prior to my
non-climatic ‘leap from faith’ some years back, I was a proud Christian soldier
in that most excellent example of organized religion — the United Church of
Canada.

However, while I still hold a soft spot for the old UCC, I’ve never been one
to pooh-pooh other denominations either. Quite frankly though, I don’t know
enough about the other denominations to say much about them in the first place.
In my hometown of Paradise Valley, Alta., we had the United Church and the
Church of God. That was about the limitation of my denominational understanding
for the first half of my life.

Until I went to a Lutheran university, I’d never really thought of Lutherans
existing at all. I thought Catholics were just from TV, and an Anglican sounded
more like a trigonometry term than a member of a major world faith
tradition.

I wish I were more ecumenical in my understanding, but I can only claim
ignorance when it comes to matters of these particular Christian sects (although
that doesn’t seem to stop me from writing columns on the subject as if I were an
expert, apparently). This week, my somewhat flaky interest in any specific
religious practice has set its sights to the Anglican Church of Canada.

While perusing the stock at White Cat Book Company in Saskatoon the other
day, I came across a handsome little publication called the Book of Common
Prayer. This 1959 edition is filled with an array of prayers for most any
occasion. From the consecration of bishops, to overseeing wedding ceremonies, to
family prayers for saying grace — this little red book has it all. Read more